nvenient both for turning the plough, and
also for sowing. Hence the most convenient unit of land for arable
purposes was a furlong in length and a perch or pole in width.

The team generally consisted of eight oxen. Few peasants, however,
possessed a whole team, several generally joining together, and dividing
the produce. Hence the number of "rigs," one for each ox. We often,
however, find ten instead of eight; one being for the parson's tithe,
the other tenth going to the ploughman.

When eight oxen were employed the goad would not of course reach the
leaders, which were guided by a man who walked on the near side. On
arriving at the end of each furrow he turned them round, and as it was
easier to pull than to push them, this gradually gave the furrow a turn
towards the left, thus accounting for the slight curvature. Lastly,
while the oxen rested on arriving at the end of the furrow, the
ploughmen scraped off the earth which had accumulated on the coulter and
ploughshare, and the accumulation of these scrapings gradually formed
the balk.

It is fascinating thus to trace indications of old customs and modes of
life, but it would carry us away from the present subject.

Even though the Swiss meadows may offer a greater variety, our English
fields are yet rich in flowers: yellow with Cowslips and Primroses, pink
with Cuckoo flowers and purple with Orchis, while, however, unwelcome to
the eye of the farmer,

the rich Buttercup
Its tiny polished urn holds up,
Filled with ripe summer to the edge,[36]

turning many a meadow into a veritable field of the cloth of gold, and
there are few prettier sights in nature than an English hay field on a
summer evening, with a copse perhaps at one side and a brook on the
other; men with forks tossing the hay in the air to dry; women with
wooden rakes arranging it in swathes ready for the great four-horse
waggon, or collecting it in cocks for the night; while some way off the
mowers are still at work, and we hear from time to time the pleasant
sound of the whetting of the scythe. All are working with a will lest
rain should come and their labour be thrown away. This too often
happens. But though we often complain of our English climate, it is yet,
take it all in all, one of the best in the world, being comparatively
free from extremes either of heat or cold, drought or deluge. To the
happy mixture of sunshine and of rain we owe the greenness of our
fields,